Monday, December 11, 2006

*NIGHT TREE by Eve Bunting*

I read this book today to all the children - Stacia through Josiah. I like this little book. It's one that is in our "Christmas crate" and packed away each year on New Years.

The night before Christmas this family loads a box into the back of their truck and drives out to the forest. They decorate a tree with popcorn strings, apples, tangerines and such for the animals. They spread a blanket, drink hot chocolate and admire their handiwork.

I've meant to do this every year with the children. TX doesn't have a lot of pines and in AK it was TOO cold at the end of December to be sitting in snow banks admiring trees!!!

The children and I want to decorate a tree this year....we are undecided if it will be one in our front yard or a mesquite in the fields where the deer and critters roam at the end of our block. The point really is to feed the animals and I doubt many will venture down OUR street with it's Las Vegas like light displays. ::snort::












*Humor for the holidays*
This fun, inexpensive book ($7.88) contains short essays from Christian authors such as Pastor Jack Hayford, Pasty Clairmont, Martha Bolton, Tim Wildmon, Lynn Bowen Walker and many more. Several of my favorites were written by Karen Scalf Linamen.
The essays are on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
Personally, I really got a kick out of Karen Linamen's thoughts on "Black Friday". She makes a fairly convincing case that staying home is Biblical. She wraps it up by discussing the "perfect gift"...you know the ones we try to find for others and we look for in the gifts we receive. How often do we wonder if God has made a mistake when we open some of his gifts...but we have the assurance that EVERY gift from Him is good.....or will bring good.
Day of the Broken Glass

Having gone years without breaking glass, THIS day was bizarre. FIVE items were broken; plates, cups, bowl and an ornament...the TX ornament.

Nolan dropped it. He and I decided that we would go to the store where we thought it was purchased and buy another one. In our home we teach that possessions are the blessing of the Lord and to be valued. We strive to respect and honor each other's things. Nolan wanted to replace the ornament. This was not punitive. It was a consequence....it was an accident...but if you break something; you replace it. The thing is *I* had it down low. I thought I should replace it. I could see it was really in his heart to buy it and so we split the cost. Our new TX ornament is exactly the same...and now it has several special memories...first from a dear TX friend and second from my son and I. I have it high on a shelf in my room - beside the tree.

Zander wanted to come with us. We agreed. I called Heather and she graciously agreed to let me come grind some wheat at her home. We stopped there before going downtown for our ornament. Her son, Jesse, was a great host. He showed the boys his rats and then played games with them...even finding something that Zander could play with since Stratego was too hard for Zander. We had a minor explosion of flour in Heather's kitchen....I felt bad leaving her with fine dust over all her kitchen. We did clean up the big spots. I discovered the nutrimill is bigger than my whispermill. It is louder...but not terribly loud. As for mess - not a fair test today because we tried to grind without the little cup since we didn't know what the cup was good for. ::snort:: The boys are now convinced they need rats. Maybe we'll just make it a point to visit Jesse's. I DO have a thing about rats and mice you know...but these are NOT white and they are BIG and not mouse-like....I should have taken the camera.

We left with our flour and headed to the historic area of town. Walking into Eggemeirs is like walking into an antique. The ceilings are COOL. In addition to the amazing architecture they also have antique planes - giant models - hanging from the ceiling. They have two trains that run around the store, up high on shelves. The boys were AMAZED. They have a brio train set up and they had fun playing. Then we walked around the kitchen part of the store so I could find a few Christmas items I "need" as Josiah and Jamin have been asking me for gift ideas. I found MY TEA here...it cost more, so I don't feel very bad for ordering a box online. They also had some "The Republic of Tea" tea.....Heather had previously let me try some Rooibos tea. They had some. I opted for the "Good Hope Vanilla" Rooibos tea.

Our last stop was to deliver a baby gift to the base chapel.

Back at home I made a tiny pot of tea. My Good Hope Vanilla IS yummy!!! Arielle made a pot of organic hot chocolate and we visited. She's reading a mystery book about a green cat. She seems to like it. The little tea for one in the photo below was a gift from dear friends at Elmendorf PWOC. I've thought it too nice and dainty to use because I don't want it broken...but today I USED it....and it was wonderful....nice to sit, relax, reflect and remember....
I unpacked my winter plates - some have pine and pine cones and the others are snowmen. I usually keep my snowmen up until spring...though some in TX really questioned this practice last year. LOL It was never a problem in AK.

My copy of the MOMYS (Moms of Many Young Siblings) cookbook arrived. I can't remember what the Latin means on the front. I guess I'm going to have to look it up. It will bother me endlessly until I do. ::snort:: (Ah, you can see my crashed computer in the background....with its perpetually frozen screen LOL)
Cy didn't close tonight! Yippee. We had dinner: bbq meatballs over rice, salad, carrots, fruit plate....
There continues to be an almost continual parade of slow-moving cars down our street. This is the sure way of knowing that it is Christmas in TX. LOL Ah well, the realtor DID warn us we were buying on Christmas Alley. Saturday night there were TWO busses AND a semi-truck pulling a flat bed loaded with hay and carolers. Jamin suggests we should sell hot chocolate and make a fortune. Maybe we should set up with some hot chocolate to GIVE away next Saturday night. I'm still considering things we can add that will concisely get across the Christmas message since so many drive by this time of year. My ideas so far haven't been entirely kosher....but maybe by next year.....For now the nativity and Celeberate Jesus sign are good.

We caught up in Tabitha's Travels and read a chapter of Peter Pan.
NATIVITIES (joint narration - comments like 'what year was that again?' were omitted. LOL )

In 1223, St. Francis of Assisi was the first person to stage a “nativity”. He used live animals & people.

God waited to give His gift for the right time, like we have to wait to open gifts until Christmas.

God did give hints about the gift He was going to give. These hints are called prophecies. A nativity reminds us of many of God’s hints….born in Bethlehem, in a stable, Mary and Joseph
remind us that the messiah would come from David’s family, wise men from the East brought
gifts, and the baby Himself.

(Always fun to see what the children will pick out to dictate to me. I instantly know if I've managed to get the point across. LOL I loaned my Jesse Tree devotional book out so didn't have a list of prophecies handy to discuss with the nativity - but I THINK we did enough to get the young ones started thinking....)
SCHOOL - MONDAY

WOW - the day was started all wrong (as I mentioned below I didn't get up in time to have breakfast ready by 7:00 a.m.) BUT.....

When I checked our TOG for the week it is a very LIGHT week. Yippee! Last week the littles and I got two weeks done and our Christmas studies as well. I'm not sure if we'll do two more weeks this week because it is so light...or if we'll spend more time on Christmas stuff....We may take next week off. My older children want to push....but I have STUFF that I've got to do.

After our TOG - WW2 stuff - we talked about nativities. I'll post the blurb they dictated next. We took the cute nativity graphic from Hands of a Child....and adapted it. This is another little booklet for our Christmas lap book.

First we enlarged the shape of the stable from HOAC and traced it on to card stock. We needed more room than their little book provided to write information on. Then we cut out the little nativity figures, colored them, glued them on the HOAC nativity and glued THAT on to the front of our book. All that was left was cutting out the blurb they'd dictated and gluing it in. You'll notice one of them has a stable that opens up and one down. LOL

TEA CHESTS

LOL Dorothy - now a huge chest as you describe would be hilarious next to my tea pot. Thanks for the funny this a.m.

Here's a link to the tea chests at the English Tea Store (which is located somewhere here Stateside, I think ::snort::).

I'm not sure what I'll do. This would be nice to have at Bible study and such but since most my tea isn't in foil pouches...hmmmm....
MENUS

I'm really trying to get meals back on schedule again. We didn't get up for a 7 a.m. breakfast today and it totally changes our productivity the rest of the a.m. I must do this...plain and simple....though I'm still not sure how to fit biking in yet.....Of course I really don't want to buy the machine now because I want Mike to do the research and pick it out anyway. LOL

Breakfast (fruit plate and smoothies each day)
Breakfast Burritos
Quiche
Dutch Babies
Biscuit and Gravy
Waffles

(Have made 3 lbs of turkey sausage up to age for a couple of days while the kids did table school)

Dinner (salads & fruit at each meal)
Beef Stroganoff
Pizza
Encore Presentation
Burger Burn
BBQ Meatballs over rice - hmmm maybe over potatoes as I have some to use up
Round Steak of some sort....